Computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) are tools for planning and scheduling equipment maintenance and asset management to meet the needs of modern plants and facilities. Using information about system components, CMMS software schedules maintenance, repairs, and inspections of such components. CMMS software notifies operations personnel when maintenance or other action is necessary. One example of CMMS software is the MAXIMO system, offered by Project Software & Development, Inc. (PSDI), of Cambridge, Mass.
Process control software is used in plants and other facilities to monitor, record, and control process conditions. Process control software models system processes using process variables. A process variable may be used to model a characteristic of a system component. A process variable has a range of values corresponding to a possible range of conditions of the aspect of the process being modeled by the process variable. Process control software may obtain process variable data through a number of means including manual input, sensor input, and interpolation and extrapolation from previous data. A process variable may, for example, obtain temperatures from a temperature sensor.
The values of process variables can be set and monitored, and alarms can be signaled upon detection of error conditions. Process variable histories are recorded and can be archived, printed in reports or displayed in graphs, or fed back into the process control software. One example of process control software is the I/A Series system from the Foxboro Company of Foxboro, Massachusetts. Foxboro Company is a subsidiary of Siebe PLC.